Prologue
Why do we humans feel the need to push things too far? Why do we need to change nature and experiment when things are perfectly fine the way they are? I will probably never know the answers to these questions, but for whatever reason we do it, it has always been a mistake.
And now we may have pushed it too far. The end of the human race may be quickly approaching due to one big failed experiment with a new invention. Unlike in the movies, though, that invention is not robots attempting to overthrow the human race.
It’s vampires. Not exactly the same as the ones as in the stories, but pretty close. They drink blood and are repelled by the signs of the Lord. Sunlight can touch them, but they are nocturnal so they only come out at night anyway.
It started with a scientist who discovered a way to change a human’s DNA structure to give them the characteristics of a vampire with a couple simple injections. It was useless information, but the human need to change things for the worse took over and they started paying people who needed the money to get the injections as a test.
They thought the creatures would be controllable.
They were wrong.
Chapter One
I crouched under the table in my dark basement, covering my mouth with my right hand in an attempt to muffle my heavy breathing. Tears poured silently down my cheeks and my nose was running, but there was no way I was going to sniff and make noise. A large cooking knife was gripped tightly in my left hand, ready to stab if I was attacked. The only light came from the open door at the top of the stairs, and I was just able to make out the silhouette of a man at the foot of the stairs.
Only, it wasn’t a man.
It was a monster, someone whose soul had been taken in mankind’s attempt to understand things we didn’t need to know.
“Come out, little boy. I know you’re down here. I just want to talk.”
The voice was raspy and the thing choked a little at the end. It was thirsty. Really thirsty. As soon as it found me, it would lose control and attack, meaning I would have only one chance. The vampire began walking to the left, his boots tapping on the cold concrete floor.
Luckily the injection didn’t kill the people, meaning they still had blood flowing and vital organs. Any wound that would kill a human would kill a vampire, too. The only thing was that just because they had a beating heart, it didn’t mean they had emotions. They were evil, nasty beings that had once been innocent people.
I couldn’t see the vampire, but I could hear its footsteps. I calculated my chances of surviving if I made a dash for the stairs, but the numbers came back small so I decided to stay put. I heard boxes being moved around to my left, and I tensed as its desperate search slowly moved closer to my hiding place.
The boots stopped right in front of the table I was under, and it started checking the boxes on top of the table. Taking my chance, I kicked right where its knees should be and heard a satisfying roar of pain as it went down, clutching its legs.
It reached out for me, but I quickly slashed its hand and as it recoiled I crawled quickly out from under the table. It made an inhuman hissing noise, but I was already at the stairs. I scurried up the stairs and slammed the door at the top, turning the lock. Running to the cabinet down the hall, I grabbed a small wooden cross necklace that had been my grandmother’s. I returned right as the vampire threw itself against the door, growling. I slipped the cross under the door, hoping it would work. Still holding the string, I waited. The vampire wouldn’t be able to see it, but his bat-like senses would tell him something was there. There was a tug on the string, a howl of pain, and I heard the vampire tumble backwards down the stairs. I quickly opened the door and hung the necklace on a nail conveniently placed in the middle of the door and slammed it closed again.
Anything having to do with God hurt the vampires. They were freaks, things that should have never been. God frowned upon them, and apparently everything having to do with him or religion did, too.
I dropped the knife to the ground and collapsed onto my knees, breathing heavily. The vampire would starve within the next day or two, and then I could throw its body into the streets to rot. Using my shirt’s sleeve, I wiped sweat off my forehead and stood, picking the knife up again. Once the knife was returned to its place on the counter, I turned to glare out at my quiet house.
Where the hell was my family? I had been in the basement searching for something when I heard a window break upstairs. I had gotten under the table and stayed there, finding a kitchen knife in a box beside me. Thank God we weren’t finished moving yet.
I grabbed the phone, only then noticing the vampire blood on my hand. I ignored it and dialled my mom’s cell phone number.
“Hello?” Came my mom’s sweet and unconcerned voice.
“Where in the world are you guys?!” I almost shouted into the phone.
“We just went to the store quickly to grab some more food. You seemed busy with that project, so we thought we’d leave you alone. I left a note on the kitchen table.” I glanced at the table and, sure enough, there was a small note. “Matt, is everything alright?”
I sighed, wiping my forehead again. “Yeah, you know, I’m perfectly okay. I was just attacked by a freaking vampire, but it’s no big deal.”
“What? Oh my goodness! We can shop later! We’ll be right home! Don’t move! Stay quiet! Oh my god, I’m such a horrible mother...”
“Mom! Mom! Mooooom! It’s okay. I managed to lock it in the basement. It was already hungry, so it shouldn’t last too long down there.”
There was silence for a few seconds. “Okay, but we’re still going to hurry. I want you to keep a weapon on yourself at all times, just in case. I don’t like having those things in the house.”
We said our goodbyes and I hung up, rolling my eyes. I was sixteen. I’d handled vampires before, but my mom treated me like I was five. I glanced at my reflection in the mirror across from me, realizing how sad it was that my childhood had been spent in fear. I had killed my first vampire when I was thirteen, and had been doing it a couple times every year since. The vampire numbers were beginning to grow.
The unfortunate thing about the injection was that the body copied it a million times and all the vampire’s fluids were full of it. If a vampire bit you, there was a fifty percent chance of it being transferred, almost like an STD, except you didn’t have to do the nasty to get it. Once the fluid (which was referred to as The Venom) was in you, there was no way of getting it out. Over night your soul would die and you’d begin craving blood.
The elderly had gone first. Too weak to defend themselves, many had already been killed. Young children were second. Teenagers were beginning to go down in number, too, and I had to work hard to keep my body in peak condition. Shoving a pocket knife into my jeans’ back pocket, I returned to my textbook and school project. Vampire numbers weren’t big enough yet that schools had been closed, but people suspected they would all be shut down in the near future.
But as I returned to my notebook, the first thing on my paper that I saw was a small heart in the top left with the name Bailey written inside. I smiled to myself and pulled out my cell, quickly sending a text message to my girlfriend.
